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What voters need to know about the $275M Yorkville District 115 referendum heading into Tuesday’s election · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: What voters need to know about the two hundred and
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  Speaker 1: seventy five million dollars Yorkville District one to fifteen referendum
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  Speaker 1: heading into Tuesday's election. Written by Joey Weslow, This article
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  Speaker 1: is being read by an automated voice brought to you
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  Speaker 1: by Everlett. With early voting already underway, residents are heading
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  Speaker 1: to the polls to cast their decision on the two
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  Speaker 1: seventy five million dollar building bond referendum from Yorkville School
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  Speaker 1: District one hundred and fifteen. The referendum on Tuesday's primary
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  Speaker 1: ballot is for new and expanded school buildings to help
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  Speaker 1: better fit the district's booming student population that has been
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  Speaker 1: far outpacing the investment in larger classrooms. Superintendent Matt Zedeker
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  Speaker 1: has called the overcrowding unsustainable. Other district officials have said
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  Speaker 1: classrooms are currently bursting at the seams. If approved by voters,
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  Speaker 1: the two hundred seventy five million dollars in bonds will
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  Speaker 1: be combined with twenty million dollars in the district's reserves
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  Speaker 1: to construct a new middle school and a new elementary school.
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  Speaker 1: A new academic wing is planned for the high school
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  Speaker 1: enabling all the students at the Freshman Academy to be
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  Speaker 1: moved into the one main high school building. The plan
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  Speaker 1: also converts a current elementary school into an early childhood center.
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  Speaker 1: The funds would also be used for a new performing
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  Speaker 1: arts center and an athletic field house located outside the
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  Speaker 1: high school for a combined price of sixty million dollars.
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  Speaker 1: Changing the calculus a little bit, the district could soon
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  Speaker 1: be the recipient of sixty eight thousand, two hundred fifty
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars from the city in funds collected from upfront
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  Speaker 1: payments from the developers of the project Cardinal Data Center
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  Speaker 1: and the project's Steel Data Center. The money is still
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  Speaker 1: subject to full final approval on both projects. Zedeker said
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  Speaker 1: the funds will drastically reduce the tax burden on homeowners
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  Speaker 1: and property owns. He said the language on the March
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  Speaker 1: seventeenth ballot will remain the same in spite of the
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  Speaker 1: cash influx. Zedeker said the money is only earmarked for
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  Speaker 1: new buildings, remodeling or upgrading current facilities. Classes are being
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  Speaker 1: taught in hallways, and other programming is taking place in
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  Speaker 1: inadequate spaces, as as Edeker said during the state of
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  Speaker 1: the district last September. We have special ed classes held
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  Speaker 1: in math classrooms that don't have proper accessibility to bathrooms.
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  Speaker 1: We're not able to offer all the extracurricular activities our
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  Speaker 1: kids and families want. To help accommodate the classroom capacity crisis,
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  Speaker 1: the district constructed for three point nine million dollars temporary
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  Speaker 1: classroom structures outside four elementary schools. School district officials have
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  Speaker 1: even gone to city council to oppose new residential developments
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  Speaker 1: to help slow the rate of student enrollment growth. In
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  Speaker 1: fashioning the facility, master planned the district when on a
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  Speaker 1: tour engaging the public and gathering feedback on what new
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  Speaker 1: buildings they wanted to most see built, Zedeker said, this
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  Speaker 1: is where the inclusion of the new performing Art Center
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  Speaker 1: and athletic field house was born. We simply do not
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  Speaker 1: have the resources to invest in our infrastructure to make
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  Speaker 1: the necessary upgrades to overcome or overcrowding challenges, Zedeker said
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  Speaker 1: during a city council meeting. It is beginning to hamper
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  Speaker 1: the ability for us to provide the education opportunities and
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  Speaker 1: experiences that our kids and families deserve. If the referendum
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  Speaker 1: fails to gain approval on Tuesday, the district can take
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  Speaker 1: a second swing add in on the November general election ballot.
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  Speaker 1: Zedeker said the district would examine why the first ballot
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  Speaker 1: failed and downsize it come November. This would most likely
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  Speaker 1: mean a similar expansion plan would be on the ballot,
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  Speaker 1: minus the Performing Art Center and the Athletic field House.
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  Speaker 1: During a city council meeting, alderman Chris Funkhauser expressed skepticism
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  Speaker 1: about the town's appetite for the costly Performing Arts Center
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  Speaker 1: and Athletic field House, calling their inclusion a one hundred
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  Speaker 1: percent wish list by the district. Yorkville one fifteen board
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  Speaker 1: member Darren Crawford spoke at a city council meeting saying
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  Speaker 1: he did not support the referendum and thinks there are
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  Speaker 1: less expensive solutions to the district's classroom capacity crisis. He
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  Speaker 1: did not explain in detail his proposed solutions. Zedeker said,
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  Speaker 1: given the student population growth showing no signs of slowing
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  Speaker 1: in the upcoming years, it's still imperative to pass the
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  Speaker 1: referendum on March seventeenth to have the students using the
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  Speaker 1: new buildings by the fall of twenty twenty eight. If
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  Speaker 1: the referendum was approved instead in November, students would not
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  Speaker 1: be able to use the new buildings until the fall
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  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty nine. Enrollment has tripled in the past
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  Speaker 1: twenty years, with another eight hundred students expected to be
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  Speaker 1: added to the already squeezed classrooms, according to the district's demographer.
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  Speaker 1: The demographer projected the new buildings will provide space for
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  Speaker 1: the next twelve to fifteen years before more classrooms will
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  Speaker 1: be needed again. For residents without students in the district,
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  Speaker 1: Zedeker said, the increased property values for everybody in the
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  Speaker 1: CA community is always a nice bonus. If the referendum passes,
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  Speaker 1: the first go round, shovels will be in the ground
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  Speaker 1: as early as this fall.